Onni Valakari scores first career goal in MLS for San Diego in 1-1 tie with Crew

By Canadian Press on March 15, 2025.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Onni Valakari scored San Diego FC’s first-ever goal at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday night in a 1-1 tie with the Columbus Crew.

Valakari flicked a header off a corner kick played in by Luca de la Torre into the net for his first career MLS goal to make it 1-1 in the 69th minute.

Columbus (2-0-2) played a man down — and San Diego had six of its seven shots on goal — after Malte Amundsen was shown a straight red card in the 61st minute.

Max Arfsten opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Near the top of the penalty arc, he rolled a pass to DeJuan Jones near the left edge of the area and deliberately moved toward the goal. Jones skipped an entry past a defender back to Arfsten for the first-touch finish from 8-yards out.

CJ dos Santos stopped two shots for San Diego (2-0-2).

Patrick Schulte finished with six saves for the Crew.

San Diego played to a 0-0 tie with St. Louis City in its home debut on March 1.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

The Associated Press